ABCs OF DEATH Producer Ant Timpson Resurrects NZ Film Awards

New Zealand curator-producer Ant Timpson loves life as much as he loves death. On one hand he has co-produced the much-anticipated bloodbath anthology The ABCs of Death, while on the other he has been plotting to bring not just one, but two extinct creatures back to life.

The NZ industry was shocked when the former awards ceremony for NZ film and TV, the Aotearoa Film and Television Awards, was pronounced dead. Due to funding and other factors, the Screen Directors Guild of New Zealand decided to cease the film component of the awards. Enter Ant Timpson and NZ Herald online entertainment editor Hugh Sundae, who came up with the idea to stage an alternate awards ceremony - and name them The Moas.

The Moa (pictured above, and looking uncannily like The Chamberlain from The Dark Crystal) was a real New Zealand native animal, a giant flightless bird like the Australian Emu - but twice the size. Like the original awards, this strange creature is now extinct, but thanks to the help of Timpson, Sundae, NZFC and the Rialto Channel, will soon spring back to life.

Submissions are now open for all the categories via the website, and the event itself will be held at the Civic Theatre's Wintergarden on December 4. In a brilliant stroke of awesome, the event will also stream live on nzherald.co.nz on the night.